House of Creations

On November 21, La Monnaie is launching a series of conference-debates dedicated to the questions raised by the climate case. The first of these evenings will combine a screening of the documentary Sœurs de Combat – which recently won the Audience Award at the FIFF Film Festival of Namur – with a debate about activism led by RTBF-journalist Gwenaëlle Dekegeleer. What is the place of activism in our society? How effective can it be in the face of climate issues? Does it have the potential to inspire our leaders and lawmakers? The film’s director Henri de Gerlache, climatologist Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Thérèse Snoy (Grands-Parents pour le Climat) and Adélaïde Charlier, the French-speaking coordinator of the Youth for Climate movement in Belgium, will try to answer all these questions.

On September 22^nd, La Monnaie hosted the first meeting between composer Bernard Foccroulle – whose opera Cassandra deals with the urgent issue of climate change – and young activists from Youth for Climate. It provoked a fascinating exchange about the difficulty climate campaigners have making their voices heard.

Present at the meeting were a number of key figures from the ‘Green Opera’ project at La Monnaie and composer Kris Defoort. Later that evening, Anuna Dewever and her fellow activists attended the latter’s latest creation The Time of Our Singing, which gave them some idea of the scale of an opera and the ecological challenges staging it presents.